Listen to this article

Medical technology group Integra LifeSciences has announced plans to buy Johnson & Johnson’s Codman neurosurgery business for just over $1bn in cash.

The US company said the proposed $1.045bn deal would accelerate its international growth and help it to achieve targets of $2bn in revenue.

The transaction is expected to add $0.22 to Integra’s earnings per share in the first year and increase in subsequent years.

The deal will involve Codman’s 600 employees being transferred to Integra, which said that Codman’s existing portfolio and new product pipeline would complement its own products and pipeline in other areas of neurosurgery.

“Together, this comprehensive portfolio will offer customers around the world complete solutions for neurosurgery and the scale to invest and bring new technologies to patients worldwide,” the company said in a statement.

Integra said the acquired products of Codman generated roughly $370m in revenue in 2016. It said it expected that revenue will experience “some initial disruption” in the first year of the combination, then grow 3-6 per cent over the longer term.

The proposed transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the 24 principal countries in the fourth quarter of 2017 and remaining countries on a rolling basis.